OK, I don't understand the problem in this. I mean, if you have lusts and desires, and your religion forbids you to follow them, and you try to follow this religion by fighting them and trying to avoid them and it's a very difficult daily struggle which you face every day - what's not religious about that?

See, if Nilly were the Pope, everything would be perfect.

I'm thoroughly disheartened and revolted by all the wrongheaded, un-Christian edicts coming from the Vatican and all the news coming from, well, everywhere. On Monday night my mom and I had to go to a completely stupid hour-long meeting, during which we learned that Child Abuse Is Bad, No, Really! And We Should All Report It If We Suspect It! During which meeting we also learned that a priest my mom knew long ago, who was smart and kind and passionate about his vocation, had just quit because he was too revolted by the arrogance of the US bishops and by the Vatican's refusal to even consider the questions of celibacy and of women in the priesthood. So now, having been a priest all his life and having no savings and basically no retirement, he's living with his mother again, trying to figure out what happens next. Good, good man, gone.

I've already decided that as long as I'm in the Bay Area, I'm sticking with my parish, and if it splits, I split with it. And if we ever move, I'll be...something else. I don't know what. Which I hate. This is part of the core of me, and they're shitting all over me and all over so many people I love and destroying something that's beautiful and true, and they're doing it on purpose, with the conscious intent of driving us all away. I don't hate them, but only just barely.

t /rant

My only big button on this is the idea that "all gay priests are molesting little boys."

Or, "Only gay priests are molesting children."

Even, for me, "Most Catholic priests are molesters," even aside from the bullshit "gay = pedophile = molester." Come ON now.

I think Brenda makes a good point about some people (especially in earlier generations) entering the priesthood not because of a real calling, but in order to try to avoid their own sexuality issues.

Anyway.

Longstanding Puzzle of Honeybee Flight Solved at Last

Unlike other flying insects, honeybees use short wing strokes of less than 90 degrees and a high number of flaps every second to stay aloft. The researchers found that when challenged to fly in difficult conditions, such as a mixture of oxygen and helium that mimicked air density at more than five miles up in the atmosphere, the bees resorted to wider strokes, but maintained the same high flapping frequency.

I wanna be the person who says, "Gee, let's put honeybees in a mixture of oxygen and helium and see what happens."

During which meeting we also learned that a priest my mom knew long ago, who was smart and kind and passionate about his vocation, had just quit because he was too revolted by the arrogance of the US bishops and by the Vatican's refusal to even consider the questions of celibacy and of women in the priesthood.

Gah. And this is the kind of thing I keep hearing, and I know a couple of people in this boat as well, and it just breaks your heart. I'm not religious myself, but I've known some clergy who have been the most amazing, inspirational people, and who have done so much for their congregations and for the world, and it kills me to see good people of faith being forced out of something that means the world to them.

I can hate them for you. I'm a heathen. It's what we do. See the tag.

Well, somewhere in the Bible (dunno if it's Old or New Testament) there's something about how if you have lustfull thougths in your heart for someone you're not married to, you've still committed adultry.

That was Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (New Testament).

The interpretation I've always heard of that particular sermon is that he was actually skewering the attitudes of the Pharisees, who were obeying the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law.

Meaning, in the "adultery" example, the Pharisees were all prideful that they could point to the "thou shall not commit adultery" commandment, and say "Oh, no -- *I* have never had carnal knowledge of another man's wife!" Meaning, literally, didn't have PIV sex. It's like people who have oral sex/anal sex/"everything but" who proudly proclaim their virginity just because they haven't had PIV intercourse.

And Jesus' point was basically, "Okay, Pharisee dorks, do you even *understand* what big fat hypocrites you're being?"

It really *wasn't* meant to be an injunction on our very thoughts. At least, like I said, that's the interpretation I've always heard.

I can hate them for you. I'm a heathen. It's what we do.

Yeah. We also make sure all those nice seats in Hell don't go to waste....

Posting from Ground Zero of the Abusive Priest scandal, what I seem to recall from the coverage (which I stopped reading, long ago, and which, in fact, tied into my whole new head-in-the-sand approach to the news) was that many of the abusers weren't considered pedophiles, but rather, they are ephebophiles.

Pedophiles target the pre-pubescent, and sexual orientation (in the sense of attraction to members of either the same or opposite sex) has nothing to do with pedophilia--the abuse of young children.

Ephebophiles target sexually mature minors. Both acts are criminal. Most people recognize them as immoral, but pedophilia (I hate using that term, because love has nothing to do with it--pederasty is also correct, yes?) is a specific pathology, and is different from ephebophilia (I don't even think it's a diagnostic term). From what I recall, studies of the victims, found that the majority of victims were sexually mature male minors. I think it was more than 3/4s, but I can't stand googling this shit, enough to confirm that assertion.

One article:

[link]

Still, I think targeting priest-wannabes by (straight/gay) orientation is a mistake. If a celibate is going to actually stay celibate, it doesn't matter what floats his boat. Besides, every group of people (religious, otherwise-cultural) has sex offenders. There are all sorts of "reasons" behind this disgusting mess. One of them, is that the abusers were sent on to new parishes time and again--in other words, part of the reason it is all such a big scandal is because the hierarchy was so scandalizing the laity, that they swept the problem under the rug, rather than dealing harshly with the offenders, and rather than reporting the offenders to the police.

There have been studies done on not only the abusers, but on the psychological maturity of seminary students, as relates to sexuality. The studies have found noticeable immaturity given the age of the subjects. There's no one thing going on, here. To target priest who may have a same sex orientation seems to me to be an overly simplified approach to a multi-layered problem.

Now I have to go throw up in my mouth, a little. Here's a link to some studies done by the U.S. Catholic Bishops and John Jay. I can't read them to either confirm or disprove what I've said above, because of that appointment I have to throw up.

[link]

I'm sorry to hear about your mom's priest friend, JZ -- he sounds like the sort who could (and no doubt did) do a lot of good against the forces of lame-ass crap. In other words, exactly the sort that gets ground down to a nub by forces of etc.

I think the people in my office are getting me sick. Apparently I look like death warmed over. I cannot get sick. They want me to take Airborne. It scares me.

Happy birthday Em!